The Pickens sentinel. [volume] (Pickens, S.C.) 1871-1903, 1887-03-24
COTTON PLANTING.
CHEAP MONEY THE GREATEST NEED
&% OF OUR FARMERS.


tom and Expensive Loans Won't Answer
Views of u Planter. 49,.
The following article on the subject OF
cotton planting, from the pen OF a
Wateree planter, appeared in the Colum-
bia Register:
"What man is there, if you ask tor
bread will give you stone; If you ask
for fish, give youa serpent?
When the early Virginia colonists ap-
piled to the authorities Mt home for some
consideration in the matter OF churches
and schools, suggesting the benefit it
would be to their souls, the reply of the
profane regency that governed the Vir-
ginia planters was; "Damn your souls,
plant tobacco" Change tobacco for
cotton and you have much the Same re-
ply practically given to the poor devit
who is trying to make an honest living
by cultivating the kindly soil of South
Carolina. ''Make cotton" is the reply
to every application for advances that
are necessary to carry on this business,
as things now stand, by those who con-
troll the money of the country. No cot
ton, no advances, diversified agriculture
grow grasses, raise stock, wheat, barley,
oats and rye. You improvident, thrift
less devil, call yourself a farmer, and
plant cotton to buy everything else?
True, and pity tits, true: and why is this
thus? Simply because this power that
rules the country absolutely finds it's
interest in having cotton planted to the
exclusion, practically, of everything
else; and under the pressure of that law
the farmer has his financial lifo worked
out of him as completely as ever the
Spaniard did the best blood of Aztec and
Inca in the mines of Mexico and Peru.
The emancipation of tho Southern
negro left nothing III the hands of the
planter but his lands, with little or no
market value, at least not enough to
make 1t legitimate basis Of mercantile
credit. The national banks refused to
lend money on the security Of real estate,
their charters forbidding. The banks
found it better for their interest to get
as far from the planters as possible, and
1ntcrposed the commission merchant
between them, who acted as strikers for
the bank, while making their own money
out of 1T. The bank gives GUcommoda-
ton to the city merchant, the merchant
to such firms III the country towns and
crossroads as suit their purposes, and at
last the farmer (be he of many plows to
the nlgger with his OK takes it as hc
can get it, with the condition precedent
of $50 much cotton" The cotton comes,
! but under this system the planter is
always left He drags lcngthening
chain. When he started after the war,
we assume, he had something loft. How
many Of that class have anything now?
Ii he has, how long will he keep it? 1t
rs but o question Of time and short time.
Who or what is to blame for this? No
individual certainly. He who prospers,
while the planter at the other end Of the
line goes to the wall, does it in fair and
open market, taking advantage OF the
soundings made to his hands-for 'the
stars in their courses fight against
SIsera' his (the capitalists) holds the
cards that wins, and controls the situa-
ton, as the Jews did Europe in the Mid
die Ages, by having all the money and
all the credit.
:. The man who gets money at six or
eight per cent. and lends it at fifteen or
twenty: or twenty-five (getting it often,
IN the hrst instance, upon the collateral
pledge OF real estate of the man he lends
1T to) must go up as other goes down.
80, then, as lar as we can see, this dis
crlmlnation III the price Of money to the
Planter, is the handicap that weighs him
down. lie makes his staple pretty much
to.the exclusion of everything else, with
money, that costs him anything from l2
to 25 per cent. one way or another.
whilst the man who buys it, carries on
business with money that costs in New
York or Liverpool and per cent. less,
Those who handle cotton make money
out of it. Go into the streets of any OF
the country towns in the cotton region
in December, and every store is full,
and doing q roaring business on and ont
of cotton, while every pound of it cost
the man who made it more than it sold
for. 1t costs 5000 to pick bale of 500
pounds. This alone pOurs into the
country cotton marts a very large
amount of hard cash in the space of two
and half months. Add to this the
seed cotton traffic, and you have some
= thing that accounts for the ''millI in the
cocoanut," So much more can be made
by those who have money, by lending il
In advances to the man who makes the
cotton, than by planting, that even
planters themselves, who may have it,
let it go that way. The tendency seems
to be the absorption of all the large
estates in the country, by the wealthy
city capitalists. This is as natural as
ineGtable, and in many cases the sooner
this is done tho better for all concerned
They know how it is themselves. They
have the means of overcoming the
difficulties OF the situation, and may sue
cceed. We wish them well 1t is nc
tault OF theirs that the old system OF the
south should pass away, and the ole
estates OF the country be carried on by
an "absentes system" like sugar estate
IN British Gniana, or a tea farm on the
slopes OF the Himaleyas. Free labor ro
qmres lalge amount Of floating caDita
to move and control it. 1t was 5ro3orly
said, in old times, that the nlehfer b,C boS
no business with banks, his labor beim[
part of his vested capital, maxine thni;
necessary support as well. In nlI ottn,
business, where q number of hands o.l
employed, a floating capital is rennipeS
while those using the capital realize ~
it at short periods, and are able 10 reno,
it with advantage to the lender and nor
rover. Not so with the planter, for th,
reas sons given. And we know what ",
soc, Wi ,en we affirm that no mora ,ros